Macon Magazine

civic organizations and restaurants may assist by donating dinner. On Mondays and Tuesdays, clinic hours extend to the evening with most volunteers coming directly from day jobs to work their clinic shifts. Once a month since MVC opened, Tina Dickson, owner of Ingleside Village Pizza, has been supplying the fuel to keep these workers going. counseling. Eventually, we'd like to expand the dental clinic to offer additional services. We also want to increase clinic hours to have more time and more physicians." The clinic staff is moving toward one of those goals this year by adding hours to the Wednesday clinic to offer more appointments. Lind would love to see active physicians step forward and take a small number of specialty patients per month so one practice isn't bearing the brunt of voluntary care. The Macon Volunteer Clinic fills the all-tooimportant gap Bibb residents like the Smiths face: individuals who work hard, but for various reasons, do not have health benefits. Employees of small businesses, those who may have lost a spouse who carried benefits, and those ineligible for Medicare or Medicaid all cross the clinic's threshold. These are the same residents who previously had to utilize emergency room services for primary care; now thanks to MVC, those trips, which cause increased ER wait times and higher insurance premiums and taxes, are drastically lower than in 2003. M "Celebrating our 10-year anniversary is more than celebrating our accomplishments; it's celebrating the people and personalities and the love that people have for this place and each other," Lind said. "We get more than we give at the end of the day. It's such a joy to be here. I can't tell you how much I love it and what it does for the community." "They contacted me in the beginning and I was more than happy to help out," Dickson said. "They do good work there. They're giving back, and you've gotta help the people who do good." Looking ahead, Lind would like to provide patients with still a wider array of health-care options. "Within the next year or so we would like to partner with counselors and offer mental-health 100 95 95 75 75 25 25 5 5 0 0 100 C oming Ju ne/Ju l y 2013 100 100 95 95 Women in Business call 746-7779 or email maconmagazine.com for more information 75 In challenging times, true leaders step forward. Meet the female entrepreneurs and executives who are advancing Macon's future, one smart decision at a time. 75 25 25 5 5 0 0 A Special Advertising Section of Macon Magazine 64 l Macon Magazine april/MAy 2013 MCCG General USN&WR Qtr page Macon Mag 2013

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